Reading material Basic
Жлуктенко Ю.О., Яворська Т.А.,op.cit.,p.82-88, 97-119.
Историко-типологическая морфология германских языков: Фономорфология, Парадигматика. Категория имени / Отв.ред. М.М.Гухман. -М.: Наука, 1977.-С.175-227, 161-174.
Additional
Ермолаева Л.С. Очерки по сопоставительной грамматике германских языков.- М.: Высшая школа. 1987.
Историко-типологическая морфология германских языков: Категория глагола/ Отв.ред. В.Н.Ярцева. - М.: Наука, 1977.
Germanic Alphabets
1.1. Runes and their origin
Runic
alphabet
is a set of
letters
known as runes
used as written symbols by Germanic
peoples
of northern
Europe, Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland
prior to the adoption of the Latin
alphabet.
The word rune (ON run f., pl. rúnar; OE rūn f., pl. rūna), used to designate one of the figures or characters of the runic alphabet, which is characterized by the arrangement of straight lines, was used more widely to mean “mystery”, “secret”, “whisper”. It is explained by the fact that runes were initially associated with the activity and secret practice of Germanic magicians, believed to be the signs having magic power. Runes were used to predict the fate of individuals and the entire nations.
Many runic symbols were used as icons, showing various things and animals. The names of the runes also reflect a world of Germanic mythical thought. Before they started to designate separate sounds, they stood for words and notions (see examples below) that made possible their usage as meaningful symbols in magic practice. But still there is doubt that the basic purpose of the runes was communication. It functioned as the alphabet from about the II-III century to the XVI-XVII century AD. Some of the runes were used for specialized purposes even thereafter (decoration, occultism, Nazis, J.R.R.Tolkien).
Runic alphabet are also known as futhark (or fuþark, derived from their first six letters of the alphabet: F, U, Þ, A, R, and K).
There were several varieties of runic scripts:
1) Early, or Common Germanic (Teutonic) Runes, also called Elder Runes or Elder Futhark used in northern Europe from about 150 to 800 AD;
2) Anglo-Saxon, or Anglian Runes, also called Old English Futhorc used in Britain from 400 to 1100 AD;
3) Nordic, or Scandinavian, also called Younger Runes or Younger Futhark, used from 800 to 1100 AD in Scandinavia and Iceland. The Younger Futhark developed further into the Marcomannic runes, the Medieval runes (1100 AD to 1500 AD), and the Dalecarlian runes (around 1500 to 1800 AD).
They differed not only by chronological and territorial parameters, but by several qualitative features, mainly by the letter shape and the number of symbols in a set.
The angular shapes of the runes are shared with most contemporary alphabets of the period used for carving in wood or stone. A peculiarity of the runic alphabet is rather the absence of horizontal strokes. Runes were commonly carved on the narrow pieces of wood, stone, other hard material.
The Early Germanic script (Elder Runes) had 24 letters (above).
Elder Runic Alphabet
Anglo-Saxon had 28 letters, and after about 900 AD it had 33.
Old English Runic Alphabet
Younger Futhark experienced the reduction of the number of symbols to 16 letters.
Younger Runic Alphabet
Danish Futhark
Swedish-Norwegian Futhark
Norwegian Futhark
It is obvious that runes endured numerous changes: in form, style of writing, system of sounds and letters, which expressed them.
The oldest testimonials of the Runic alphabet are found in Scandinavia in about 150 AD. From AD 200 to about AD 550 there are some 125 inscriptions. Most of them consist of one or several words often difficult to interpret.
In general the territory of present-day Denmark and Norway is the richest in the earliest inscriptions. Made on objects they could be easily transported, that’s why a lot of them are found along the route of the Goths in Germany, Romania, Poland and Ukraine. There are a lot of Danish inscriptions on arrow shafts, gold rings, wooden and whale bone boxes, blades, etc. The most famous of all runic inscriptions, a gold horn Jallehus made by Hlewagastir, comes from this area, as well.
In the meanwhile the runes were spread to the rest of Germany and migrated to England with the Jutes and Angles.
The main runic writings found on the British Isles are the inscriptions on the Franks Casket and Ruthwell Cross. The Franks Casket is a small box made of whalebone with runic inscriptions and pictures. It is known due to a British archaeologist A.W. Franks who discovered it at the beginning of the XIX century. The Ruthwell Cross is a 15 foot tall stone cross inscribed and ornamented on all sides. It contains the inscribed words “Cædmon made me” and a religious poem “The dream of the Rood” scripted on it.
The amount of runic carving in the younger futhark found in Sweden is really impressive. More than 2,500 inscriptions have been preserved, four fifths of them carved before 1100.
From the point of view of their contents the types of runic inscriptions include the following ones:
1) 'Kilroy was here' type inscriptions on cliff walls, large rocks and buildings
2) grave stone inscriptions, often with who carved the runes and who was buried, and also who raised the stone (later coffins and grave stones were sometimes inscribed with Christian texts carved in runes)
3) religious/magic inscriptions: prayers and curses, formulas on charms, etc.
4) inscriptions related to trade and politics, trade communication (stock orders and descriptions, excuses for not having paid in time, trade name tags for bags or cases of produce, etc. secret messages to do with the fighting of wars, etc.);
5) personal letters: love letters, greetings to friends, proposals, etc.
6) rude messages, similar to modern graffiti or sms today.
7) Art and craft-signatures: Goldsmiths, blacksmiths, wood carvers, church builders, etc., often put their name on what they made.
All in all the runes remained purely epigraphic in character during more than a millennium of use. But they never achieve the recognition of regular scribal use on parchment.
The origin of the runes is still debated among runologists.
According to pagan Germanic beliefs runes were invented by Woden (Odin, Woten).
Scientific linguistic and historiography research of this issue gave rise to three main hypotheses of the origin of the runes. Runic alphabet is considered to be a unique Germanic script, though it is usual practice that the alphabet maker can create new characters from the same graphemic elements of already existing one. According to the hypotheses three sets of alphabets – the Latin, the Greek and the North Italic – may have been taken as a model for the Germanic runic alphabet. Each of the hypotheses gave preference to one of these alphabets, according to which the following were advanced:
The Latin hypothesis was developed by the Danish scholar L. Wimmer. According to it the runes are based on third-century Latin capitals. Among the arguments for this point of view is the idea that at least three runes may have originated from Latin, some runes can be assigned to Latin. Though, the role of Latin as the model of the runic alphabet is doubtful.
The Greek hypothesis was proposed by the Norwegian scholar S. Bugge (1898). According to it the runes are based on a Greek cursive alphabet, adapted by the Goths after they had reached the Black Sea coast in the III century and believed to spread from the south to the north among Germanic peoples. The argument against this hypothesis is that the Goths got acquainted with the Greek only after they conquered Olvia in 236 AD, whereas the runic inscriptions in Denmark and Norway date back to the end of the II century.
The North-Italic hypothesis was formulated by the German scholar K. Weinhold (1856), who claimed that the runes are based on the epigraphic alphabets of Northern Italy, where the Etruscans developed from Latin and Greek elements a writing of their own that shows a vivid similarity to runic. It is believed that it is the Marcomanians (South Germanic tribe) who were involved into creation of the runes. This hypothesis has the most evidence and is supposed to be the most probable.
There is one more hypothesis urged by the Danish scholar Erik Moltke (1951) who claimed that the runes were invented in Denmark. But he found little evidence for that.